Roopa
I have been meaning to try some healthyish gluten free baking for ages, and FINALLY invested in some xanthan gum. I figured I’d start with banana muffins – they have a lot of fruit, and bananas act as good binders as well. Between the bananas and xanthan gum, I was pretty confident I could get a decent texture. I feel like ready made gluten free flour mixes are ridiculously expensive, so I just used rice flour (which we make at home). You definitely don’t get the same result, but for starting off, I figure this is ok. I want to use brown rice flour as well, but white rice flour is good for trial purposes!
GLUTEN FREE BANANA MUFFINS (12 medium)
- ¾ cup rice flour
- 3/8 tsp. xanthan gum
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 300g ripe banana (about 3 small bananas)
- 7g butter, fully melted
- 1-¼ tsp. vanilla
- 3 tbsp. apple sauce
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 375F, and line a muffin tray.
- In a bowl, sift together flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Mash bananas in a mixing bowl until puree-like. Add melted butter, vanilla, and apple sauce, and mix at low speed until combined.
- Add sugar to banana mixture, and mix at low speed until combined.
- Add flour mixture to banana mixture, and mix at low speed until just combined.
- Bake for 13 – 20 minutes depending on liner size, rotating tray halfway through. Toothpick should come out clean.*
- If desired, sprinkle cinnamon on top of muffins.
*I filled my liners to the top, and they took about 15-16 minutes to bake.
Overall, they are quite good, but they do have a pretty distinct ‘rice flour’ taste. I’m a big fan of rice so this doesn’t really bother me, but it’s definitely not the same as wheat. I think it would be offset with chocolate chips, but that would undermine the whole ‘healthy’ thing. I’m quite happy with the texture, especially for my first attempt with gluten free baking. Next time, I am going to try some brown sugar instead of white sugar, and add some cinnamon to the batter as well. Or maybe I’ll use peanut butter. How can you go wrong with peanut butter?
Update: My parents really liked them. They thought the texture was excellent, and really liked the taste.
Chateau Gateau 